Buffalo Land: Authentic Account of the Discoveries, Adventures, and Mishaps of a Scientific and Sporting Party in the Wild WestWebb, W. E. (William Edward)
History
Buffalo Land: Authentic Account of the Discoveries, Adventures, and Mishaps of a Scientific and Sporting Party in the Wild West
Webb, W. E. (William Edward)
Hunting -- West (U.S.); Paleontology -- Kansas; West (U.S.) -- Description and travel
Next morning the soldiers revisited the place, and found that the band
had returned in the night, and removed the corpse. The negroes followed
the trail for a mile or more, in order to discover the place of burial,
and shortly found the chief's body lying exposed on the bank of the
Smoky. It had apparently been abandoned immediately upon the discovery
that the scalp had been taken, from the belief, probably, which all
Indians entertain, that a warrior thus mutilated can not enter the Happy
Hunting Ground. Now for the apparition in question. As the soldiers
approached the spot, a white woman, in a wretched blanket, fled away. In
vain they called out to her that they were friends; she neither ceased
her running, nor gave them any answer. The men pursued, but the fugitive
eluded them among the trees, and disappeared. A few days after, she was
again seen, but once more succeeding in escaping.
It afterward transpired that, a year or so before, a white girl had been
stolen from Texas, and passed into possession of one of the tribes. She
lost her reason before long, and, like all the unfortunate creatures of
this class among the Indians, became an object of superstition at once.
One morning she was missed by her captors, and a few days later a
Mexican teamster reported having seen a strange woman, near his camp,
who fled when he approached her. His description left no doubt of her
identity with the missing captive. I have since conversed with some of
the soldiers, then stationed at Wilson, and they assured me that the
white girl was plainly visible to them on both occasions. As she was
never afterward seen in the vicinity of civilization, the poor creature
is believed to have perished from exposure. Possibly she was making her
way to the settlements, when frightened back by the negroes, who may
have resembled her late tormentors too closely to be recognized as
friends.
After one has been for months passing over a country stained every-where
by savage outrage, it is easy to understand how the man whose wife or
sister has met the terrible fate of an Indian captive, can spend his
life upon their trail, committing murder. For murder it is, when
revenge, not justice, prompts the blow, and the innocent must suffer
alike with the guilty.
While breakfast was preparing next morning, some fiend suggested to one
of our Mexican teamsters that the Americans might like a taste of
Mexico's standard dish, "chile," of which, the fellow said, he had a
good supply in his wagon-chest. Shamus was consulted, and assented at
once, seeming delighted with the prospects of astonishing our palates
with a new sensation. Know, O reader, of an inquiring mind, that chile
consists of red pepper, served as a boiling hot sauce, or stew. It is
believed to have been invented by the Evil One, and immediately adopted
in Mexico.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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